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Monday, January 31, 2011

Clean Seas cuts its financial losses

Australian aquaculture company Clean Seas Tuna has used cost-cutting to help mitigate its financial losses in the first half of its financial year. Port Lincoln-based Clean Seas expects "a reduction in the order of 25 percent to 35 percent in the level of the after-tax loss" for the six months to December, 31, directors said this week in a market update.

In the six months to December 31, 2009, the company reported an after-tax loss of AUD14.16 million (US$14.0 million). It is now anticipating an after-tax loss of between AUD9.2 million (US$9.1 million) and AUD10.6 million (US$10.5 million). Producer of southern bluefin tuna (SBT), the firm is also Australia’s main farmer of yellowtail kingfish and mulloway, reports The Australian.

Clean Seas Chief Executive Clifford Ashby ascribed the superior first-half result to a mix of an efficiency drive and management which boosted "what we refer to as our farm gate (in the kingfish business), which is effectively the sales price, less processing and sales costs." And the company clarified that the winter season normally represents a time of slow growth for kingfish.

"While this impacts on the first half-year results, the sell-down of inventory, price increases and cost-saving initiatives have resulted in the company's kingfish business being cashflow-positive for the latest half," Clean Seas said. Read more...